Mad in America

DECEMBER 7, 2023

P rescription drugs require verification that they are helpful, not harmful. Considerable data show this is not true for psychiatric drugs. Moreover, in stark contrast to the discoveries by medical researchers of biological causation for many physical illnesses, psychiatric researchers have failed to find physiological or genetic causation for the most diagnosed mental disorders—the anxiety disorders and depression—negating the rationale for the prescription of these drugs.

Poverty and mental health 145

Poverty and mental health Trauma and the brain Genetics and mental health Anxiety disorders 145

Dr. Deb

DECEMBER 7, 2023

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Adelphi University (@adelphiu) Did you decorate early for the holidays? Deborah Serani, Psy. D, senior adjunct professor of psychology shares the science behind how decorating for the holidays can help our mood.

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Mental Health America (MHA)

DECEMBER 7, 2023

Challenging, Sustaining, and Evolving: An Anthology on Youth Mental Health Advocacy (and Hope) December 07, 2023 MHA Admin Thu, 12/07/2023 - 10:46 Download the 2023 Youth Report Amid this youth mental health crisis, several young advocates have emerged to challenge the status quo, insisting that the world pay attention. Young people have mobilized, organized, and fought to usher in a new era of mental health advocacy, and they are finally being invited to the table.

Mental health advocacy 52

Mental health advocacy 52

Santa Barbara Sanctuary Centers

DECEMBER 6, 2023

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Sanctuary Centers is getting ready to break ground on a five-story, affordable housing and healthcare facility on Dec. 14. The building will feature 34 units of affordable housing. Sanctuary Centers is focused on providing secure housing options for those with mental illnesses. The facility will include medical, dental, and behavioral health clinics.

Healthcare 52

Healthcare 52

Mad in America

DECEMBER 6, 2023

O n September 9, Mad in America published a lengthy report on the STAR*D scandal, describing how Ed Pigott and colleagues, in a series of publications dating back to 2010, had shown that the STAR*D authors violated the protocol in numerous ways to grossly inflate the announced remission rate in that study. This past August, Pigott and colleagues delivered a final crushing blow.

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Lawyers with Depression

DECEMBER 3, 2023

Todays guest is Dr. Margaret Wehrenberg. Dr. Wehrenberg is a clinical psychologist in Naperville, Illinois. She is the author of six books on the treatment of anxiety and depression published by W.W. Norton, including, The Ten Best-Ever Depression Management Techniques: Understanding How Your Brain Makes You Depressed and What You Can Do to Change It and Anxiety + Depression: Effective Treatment of the Big Two Co-Occurring Disorders.

Genetics and mental health 52

Genetics and mental health Nutrition and mood Trauma and the brain Neurotransmitters and mental health 52

Mad in America

DECEMBER 5, 2023

I t is extremely rare that anyone succeeds in changing the horrible laws we have in all countries about forced treatment with psychiatric drugs and belt restraints. I shall therefore tell a story from Denmark. It is so unusual that his obituary was written by a journalist and published in a national newspaper. Silas Dam (photo courtesy of his mother) Silas Dam killed himself this summer, only 24 years old.

Sleep and mental health 145

Sleep and mental health Aging and mental health Hospitality Legal 145

Mad in America

DECEMBER 4, 2023

From The New York Times : “Over the past century, traditional mourning practices have fallen out of favor in the West. Black is now usually worn only to a funeral, and not always then. Fewer and fewer people return to visit the deceased at their place of rest regularly; annual memorial services are especially rare. The sight of someone wearing mourning jewelry made of jet can strike a modern observer as a touch macabre.

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Mad in America

DECEMBER 8, 2023

From Psychiatry at the Margins : Awais Aftab interviews Martin Plöderl, PhD, a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at a public psychiatric hospital in Salzburg, Austria, whose research focus is on suicide prevention with a recent focus on the efficacy of antidepressants. “Overall, my take is that the evidence for adults remains somewhat inconclusive.

Hospitality 122

Hospitality 122

Mad in America

DECEMBER 8, 2023

M y name is Kyle Hulbert; I am No-One’s Son, The Boy Nobody Knew, and I am the detritus of the great grey beast that is the American psychiatric system. I was born in 1983; that might not be particularly important in and of itself, but it’s the beginning so that’s where we’ll start. I’m not sure what happened in the first three years of my life to prompt it, but when I was three I began receiving medications for what has only ever been described in my records as 

Hospitality 122

Hospitality Legal Social Services 122

Mad in America

DECEMBER 6, 2023

From FOX31 Denver KDVR : “When Jonathan Delgado-Concepcion checked himself into Centennial Peaks Hospital on Oct. 18, he thought he might be there for a few days — a week at the most. Instead, the 28-year-old found himself trapped at the behavioral health hospital in Louisville, unable to leave even after he said he felt his mental health was better. ‘Suddenly, everything started to turn to a nightmare when they started to basically hold me against my will,’ Delgado-Concepcion

Hospitality 113

Hospitality Insurance 113

Mad in America

DECEMBER 4, 2023

Editor’s Note: Over the next several months, Mad in America is publishing a serialized version of Les Ruthven’s book, Much of U.S. Healthcare is Broken: How to Fix It. In this blog, he addresses the difference between basing a medical system on clinical belief versus one based on scientific evidence. Each Monday, a new section of the book is published, and all chapters are archived here. “It’s not what you know that kills you.

Healthcare 110

Healthcare Insurance Technology Pharmaceuticals 110

Mad in America

DECEMBER 2, 2023

From gustav f./ unlearnwithdrawal.substack.com : “‘Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome’ is often approached as a mysterious physical disorder of the central nervous system. Alternatively, a mindbody approach interprets lingering withdrawal experiences as a learned brain state fueled by powerful emotions. Understanding this approach, and how it’s possible to unlearn withdrawal, is what the following video is about.

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Mad in America

DECEMBER 7, 2023

From The Guardian : “Medical experts and politicians have called for the amount of antidepressants being prescribed to people across the UK to be reduced in an open letter to the government. The letter coincides with the launch of the all-party parliamentary group Beyond Pills, which aims to reduce what it calls the UK healthcare system’s over-reliance on prescription medication.

Healthcare 99

Healthcare 99

Santa Barbara Sanctuary Centers

DECEMBER 5, 2023

An innovative mixed-use project that will bring 34 units of affordable housing along with on-site health-care services to downtown Santa Barbara is set to begin construction after several years in the planning stages. Sanctuary Centers, a nonprofit focused on providing care and housing for individuals suffering from mental illness, will host a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, December 14, for its five-story facility, which melds housing and healthcare services together in one building.

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Construction Nonprofits Healthcare 52

Santa Barbara Sanctuary Centers

DECEMBER 5, 2023

An innovative mixed-use project that will bring 34 units of affordable housing along with on-site health-care services to downtown Santa Barbara is set to begin construction after several years in the planning stages. Sanctuary Centers, a nonprofit focused on providing care and housing for individuals suffering from mental illness, will host a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, December 14, for its five-story facility, which melds housing and health-care services together in one building.

Nonprofits 52

Nonprofits Construction 52

Mad in America

DECEMBER 2, 2023

Editor’s Note: This article, written by psychiatrist Yousaf Raza, was first published on our affiliate site, Mad in South Asia. “S he was half-conscious when she was brought to me,” our psychiatry professor said, “and this is what she had been prescribed.” He showed us an image of a local psychiatrist’s prescription. The prescription included a total of eight medications, two of which were injections, for a 16-year-old girl who had presented with a two-day history of vague physical symptom

Biopsychosocial model 140

Biopsychosocial model Pharmaceuticals Hospitality Healthcare 140

Mad in America

DECEMBER 6, 2023

I didn’t know that I had the legal right to informed consent when I was first prescribed the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressant Paxil two decades ago. I just “blindly trusted” my family doctor. He didn’t tell me about any side effects, and I didn’t ask. I assumed that if there were any risks with taking Paxil, he would tell me.

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Legal Pharmaceuticals Healthcare Hospitality 116